The main teaching in the
immediate context of Hebrews 6:1-6 is spiritual maturity and spiritual growth,
or the lack thereof. As we will see, these Hebrews had not grown up in the
faith. They were still babes in Christ. This, beloved, was a major problem. It
is not normal for believers not to grow up in the faith. It is God’s design and
perfect will for His people to grow up spiritually. So when believers don’t
grow there is something seriously wrong – either with them personally, or with
the conditions and influences around them that have been allowed to hinder and
stunt their growth.

In our message we want
to see four points, which are: 1) The Hebrews’ weak and immature spiritual
condition; 2) secondly, their spiritual malnutrition; 3) thirdly, the danger of
their condition; and 4) fourthly we will see why these Hebrews weren’t growing
and who was hindering them.

The Hebrew saints in our text
were not growing spiritually like they should have been (5:11-14). Their growth
was stunted. They were still babes in Christ when they should have been mature
saints. Instead of eating solid food they were still drinking milk. By this
time they should have been teaching others the Word of God but instead they
were unskillful in the Word, and had need themselves to be taught again the
basic principles or ABCs of the Word.

Some of them apparently had even
spiritually digressed. Hebrews 5:12 tells us that they had need to be taught
again the principles of God’s Word, and were “become such as have need of
milk…”. This verse suggests that they had digressed from a higher level of
spiritual growth. Beloved, it is a serious problem when believers don’t grow,
but it is even worse when we go backwards! There is something wrong with this
picture, as they say. Not growing or going backward is a direct contradiction
to the revealed will of God for His People.

2. Secondly, we want to notice the Hebrews’ spiritual
malnutrition.

These Hebrews were spiritually
malnourished. They weren’t getting the proper diet to enable them to grow
properly. Milk is fine for babies, but there comes a time when we have to put
away the bottle and start eating solid food. Believers who do not get a proper
diet of spiritual food cannot grow properly and will not come to spiritual
maturity. This is the case of true believers in false churches. They are
spiritually malnourished and so they don’t grow up in the Lord.

We see in our text in Hebrews
6:1-3 that these believers were stuck on certain basic Christian doctrines. (Read).
We won’t take the time to elaborate on these verses, but suffice it to say that
these doctrines were considered by the author of Hebrews to be among the ABCs
of the faith. Yes, beloved, there is a proper place for the ABC doctrines in
the Lord’s churches, but there is also the whole counsel of God that needs to
be preached, including the many deep doctrines of God that are necessary for
obtaining spiritual maturity.

I remember years ago a man in our church said that he
believed the pastor should only preach the gospel, and teach only the basic
doctrines of Christ in church. He didn’t believe that the doctrines of grace
should be taught in church! Beloved, if these truths aren’t taught in church, then
where will God’s people learn them. That man wanted the entire church to remain
babes in Christ. Contrary to that man’s carnal opinion, pastors who neglect to
preach the whole counsel of God are guilty of starving and stunting the growth
of their church. Beloved pastor brethren, don’t cave in to those who tell you
not to preach certain doctrines. These people savor not the things of God.

Beloved, these Hebrews, like all
of God’s children, needed to move beyond the ABCs of the faith, and start
feasting on the deeper doctrines of the Word. They needed to realize that
spiritual malnutrition was not only hurting them and stunting their growth, but
they were not able to be of any spiritual good to others who also needed to be
taught all the counsel of God. And these Hebrews needed to awake to the great
danger of their condition, which leads us to our next point.

3. Thirdly we want to see the
danger of their condition.

In our text in verses 4-6 we see
a solemn danger and warning to those who fail to grow spiritually, or who
spiritually digress, who need to be taught the ABCs again, and again. (Read).

Spiritual stagnation is a dangerous condition. To “fall
away” in our text is apostasy, which means to totally renounce Christ and the
Christian faith. Beloved, people who constantly wrestle with the basic
teachings of the faith, who constantly need to be taught again and again the
principle doctrines of Christ, there is cause to question their faith. The fact
that they don’t grow is evidence that they lack spiritual life. Failure to
receive the basic teachings of Christ and to grow in the faith are danger
signs. True believers who show these signs should take warning. Paul said to
“examine yourselves whether you be in the faith; and prove yourselves, lest you
be reprobates. Peter said to make your calling and election sure, for if you do
these things you shall never fall.

Beloved, where are we in our
spiritual growth? Are we growing up in Christ, or do we wrestle with the very
ABCs of salvation in Christ? If so, we need to examine ourselves. There is
great danger and severe warning to those who are not growing. This is a
precursor to apostasy.

4. Fourthly we want to
see why these Hebrews weren’t growing and who was hindering them.

Beloved, probably every church has
had members that meet the description of those in our text. They constantly
wrestle with the truth, and never seem to come to a knowledge thereof. The
strong meat doctrines offend them, and like the crowd in John 6 they eventually
leave the church when they continue to hear those teachings from the pulpit.

These people are a hindrance to
the church. They constantly stir up strife and division. They constantly
question and criticize the pastor and his preaching. These people hinder the
progress of the church. They hinder the spiritual growth of God’s people, and
hold them back from obtaining spiritual maturity.

Beloved, God’s Word warns against
all such people. These people are not malnourished Christians, nor are they
backsliders who have fallen into some sin or other. No, these are apostates.
These are the Judas Iscariots in the church. These make professions of faith
like the stony ground and thorny ground hearers, but by and by they are
offended and leave the faith.

Paul, Peter, Jude, and John all
wrote about them in their epistles. Jesus warned of them during His earthly
ministry, and spoke of them in His messages to the churches in Revelations 2
and 3. Now for a few moments we want to examine these people in the light of
verses 4-6 of our text.

First we must understand
that the author of Hebrews was not teaching that saved people can “fall away”
from the faith and lose their salvation. To “fall away” means to completely
renounce Christ and the Christian faith. Let us remove any thought from our minds
that a true child of God can fall away from Christ and be lost in sin again.
Beloved, the Scriptures unanimously and ardently teach the eternal security of
the believer. The Holy Spirit would not change His mind here, or in a few other
similar passages, and teach that the elect of God for whom Christ died, could
fall from grace and be damned to eternal hell. This just could not be!

If
verses 4-6 are referring to true believers, then the author was speaking of a
hypothetical condition that could not actually be true of genuine believers.
The Arminians can forget about being saved and lost and saved again. This
passage teaches that such notion is impossible. If, however, the author was
speaking about those who had indeed had apostatized, then it must be understood
that these people were never truly saved by the grace of God.

These apostates were not
believers who just failed to grow, nor were they backsliders who had fallen
into sin. These are curable conditions that are all too common among true
believers. But this is not the case with apostates, who completely renounce
faith in Christ. These are incurably lost. These are certainly beyond all human
help, and must be turned over to the sovereign God to do with as He sees fit.
Beloved, there is nothing else that we can do for them.

How then can those who were never
true born again believers apostatize from the faith? We want to consider verses
4 and 5 for a moment and see how that these spiritual conditions might apply to
unregenerate men who never were saved. Obviously we don’t have time to do a
word study but we will entertain a few thoughts on these verses.

First, these apostates are said to have been once
enlightened. They were exposed to the light of truth. The light of the glorious
gospel of Christ shone upon them. They had a head knowledge of the gospel and
even seemed to believe and to receive it with joy, like the stony ground
hearers in the parable of the sower, but they were still lost in the darkness
of sin. These only had a natural knowledge of spiritual truth, and therefore
they were not truly converted.

Secondly, these apostates had
tasted of the heavenly gift. They had a personal experience with the Lord. They
were in close company with Christ, as it were, and witnessed His blessedness,
His mercy, His gracious deeds, and His power divine, whether in person or
through His Church. Notwithstanding, they had only tasted the heavenly gift.
They had not eaten of Christ or drunk from the well of salvation, but merely
sampled, as it were, the blessedness of salvation.

Thirdly, they were made partakers of the Holy Ghost. They
were not “born of the Spirit” nor were their bodies the temples of the Holy
Ghost as with true believers. Yet by their proximity to the mighty
manifestation of the Holy Spirit, these apostates sensed the power, and joy,
and elation that true believers enjoyed. Even today, lost sinners attend church
services and sometimes they seem to be moved, as it were, by the manifestation
of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes they are overcome with tears of sorrow, or sense
the joy of the Spirit’s presence, yet they go away lost in their sins. To a
degree they partake of the Holy Ghost, yet He has not taken up residence in
their soul.

Fourthly, these had “tasted of
the good word of God”. They had heard and understood in a carnal way, the
promises of God, and how that God had been faithful to His promises to His
people. These had come to embrace the Word of God as truth, to the extent
possible in the flesh. They willingly listened to God’s preacher like Herod
gladly heard John the Baptist, and as Felix heard Paul concerning the faith,
and trembled with fear, yet these were not changed.

Once again, these had only
tasted, but had not eaten of the good Word of God. A mere taste goes no farther
than the tongue, but only by eating and digesting the Word of God does one
receive the saving benefit in their heart and soul.

Fifthly and finally, these also
had tasted of the powers of the world to come. They had witnessed the mighty
works of Christ in this dispensation, either in person or through the Holy
Spirit in the Church. There was no doubt that what they had seen and heard was
the mighty working of God’s power that He wrought in Christ. They could not
deny that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, and therefore
they were without excuse.

Beloved, the unregenerate who
experience these divine influences and privileges can and do fall away if they
are not regenerated by the Holy Spirit to receive the love of the truth. In
contrast, the author was persuaded “better things” of the true Hebrew believers
in verse 9, “things”, he said, “that accompany salvation”. But of these
apostates the author only predicted eternal doom.

It is impossible to renew such
ones to repentance, seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh,
and put Him to an open shame. They had totally renounced faith in Christ, and
therefore there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin. They have cast off the
hope of the gospel and the sufficiency of Christ’s sacrifice for their sins.
There is nothing more to do for them or say to them. They are no more our
responsibility to try and win them to Christ. To do so is to cast our perils
before the swine. Can God still save them? This is for the Lord to determine
and not us.

These
are “spots in your feasts”, “clouds without water”, and like fruitless trees
they are “twice dead, plucked up by the roots”. They are “raging waves foaming
out their shame”, and “wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of
darkness forever” (Jude 12-13). These have “escaped the pollutions of the
world” through the knowledge of the Saviour but were “entangled again therein”.
“It would have been better for them to have not known the way of righteousness,
than to have known it and then turned away from the holy commandment that was
delivered unto them. But it happened unto them according to the true proverb,
The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to
her wallowing in the mire”. (2 Pet. 2:20-22).

Beloved, these apostates are a
hindrance to the church and the true saints of God. They drag us down and hold
us back from going on to spiritual maturity. Moreover, they cause strife and
dissension in the church. May God help us to discern these apostates when they
come in among us, and to turn them over to the Lord. Don’t permit them to
hinder our spiritual progress. Don’t let them cause division and turmoil in our
churches. And don’t spend all our time and energy on apostates of whom God’s
Word said “it is impossible to renew them again to repentance”.

Conclusion:

God help true believers to grow
up in the faith. This is God’s will for His people. Don’t let any thing or
anyone hold you back or hinder your spiritual growth.

Be warned, professing Christian,
failure to grow and spiritual digression are danger signs. If this is your
case, examine yourself and prove to your own self whether you be in the faith.

And finally, may God help we who
are pastors to preach the whole counsel of God regardless of what men might do
or say. Don’t give in to the apostates that come into our churches. Don’t let
them tell us what or what not to preach. Don’t let them work havoc and division
in our churches but deal with them according to the Word of the Lord, lest they
get a foothold and subvert the faith and hinder the growth of God’s people. And
let us not spend all our time and energy on goats when we have a whole flock of
sheep that need to be fed.